UNMANNED MEDEVAC: DRONES OVER THE BATTLEFIELD
GREG GHARST , ARTEMIO TULIO, JR. OCTOBER 19, 2023 6 MIN READ
Although drones are widely used globally, the U.S. Army has not fully utilized their potential for battlefield medicine.
The development of drones is deeply entrenched in military history. In 1849, the first concept of using uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAV) or “drones” was used by Austria to attack Venice with uncrewed balloons delivering explosives. The U.S. Navy and a team of British researchers at the Ordnance College of Woolwich experimented with drones using aerial-delivered torpedoes to fight German submarines during World War One. Since these early stages of military drone usage, remotely operated aircraft have made leaps and bounds in construction, technology, and improvement. Some examples of innovative applications include: precision farming (namely, surveillance of crop growth or pest infestation); environmental services (namely, tracking of animal populations); surveillance of natural disaster sites or areas with biological hazards (namely, earthquakes, floods, and forest fires); epidemiological surveillance for the monitoring of infectious diseases (namely, COVID-19 and Ebola); and medical services that are all being explored regularly.
Although drones are widely used globally, the U.S. Army has not fully utilized their potential for battlefield medicine. Currently, medical drones are used in various medical and public health situations to supplement ground response teams and human-crewed aircraft, mainly when responders are in danger. Hospitals have begun using drones to transport laboratory samples rapidly and reliably, and humanitarian aid organizations are now using drones to bring blood products, vaccines, pharmaceuticals, medical supplies, and even organs to remote, rural areas. Moreover, medical drones have routinely been used to perform telemedicine to evaluate patients remotely using drones fitted with two-way video communication devices and sensors to monitor temperature, pulse rate, and respiratory rate.
In the remainder of this short piece, we will first explain the advantages of drones on the modern battlefield. Next, we will relate the use of drones to medicine on the battlefield by identifying several vital benefits. These include combat triage, landing ability, and evacuation support. We conclude by addressing several potential challenges that should inform the use of medical drones to support combat operations.
https://warroom.armywarcollege.edu/articles/unmanned-medevac/
